Lawyers urged to help uncover baby death scandals

Bereaved parents who helped to force an inquiry into baby deaths in Nottingham have issued a rallying call to solicitors to enable more families to do the same.

Speaking at the Society of Clinical Negligence Lawyers conference in Birmingham, Jack and Sarah Hawkins said the legal profession should collaborate more to uncover any systemic failings in NHS trusts.

The Hawkins’ daughter Harriet was stillborn at Nottingham University Hospital in 2016 and the couple have since campaigned for an investigation into baby deaths in the city.

An independent review was launched last year, led by midwife Donna Ockenden, and is expected to take around 18 months.

Sarah Hawkins told the conference they were left to find and hear from other families themselves, but lawyers could have a role in sharing information, putting clients in touch with each other and helping to allow them to secure justice beyond any civil claim they might be leading.

She said: ‘One of the struggles we had was we had to find other families to bring a case for the Nottingham review. We set up Facebook groups and our life has been hearing of horrific stories from other people every day. Some of that burden could be taken off the families.’

Hawkins said that individual families were not powerful enough to challenge health authorities and prevent further baby deaths. But if lawyers running clinical negligence claims could work together to spot recurring issues and patterns of mistreatment, there was a chance of forcing through other inquiries.

‘The big turning point was to get other families to come forward,’ she added. ‘Trusts say they are sorry for this tragic but isolated incident. But we were able to get people to realise they were not isolated. We need the political will to make a difference. We need the press to help us get to that point. And on the legal side you can see the patterns and understand exactly what is going wrong.’

Speaking on the same panel, fellow baby loss campaigner Emily Barley, whose daughter Beatrice died last May at Barnsley Hospital, said policy-makers had put reform of NHS maternity services in the ‘too difficult pile’ and had ignored families’ calls for improvements.

Barley told clinical negligence lawyers in the audience: ‘You know what is going on, you know the detail and the breadth and patterns of where it is happening, and we need your help to put it all together. We need to join forces to stop our beautiful babies dying.’